'Hawaii Five-0': James Marsters will be ...

James Marsters plays a pretty convincing bad guy in the pilot of CBS' new
"Hawaii Five-0." So convincing, in fact, that what happens to him in the show probably isn't the last word on the character.

(Spoilers for the pilot and Marsters' character below, so proceed at your own risk.)

Zap2it asked "Five-0" executive producers
Alex Kurtzman and
Peter Lenkov if the new show would have a character similar to Wo Fat (Khigh Dhiegh), the long-time nemesis of Steve McGarrett (Jack Lord) on the original series.

"One of the first things we talked about is how do we get Wo Fat into the show," Lenkov says. "If you think about Victor Hess" -- the villain played by Marsters ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Caprica") in the series premiere -- "having gone off that barge and not surfacing [in the climax of the episode] -- I think you can truly believe Victor Hess can be a Wo Fat character in our franchise."

So does that mean Marsters will be returning? "That's the plan," Lenkov says. "But we have a huge twist with that character. So the idea is it's possible that he could come back; we have a storyline for him, and it's definitely something we're entertaining right now."

Marsters is one of several recognizable guest stars in the "Hawaii Five-0" pilot.
Jean Smart plays the governor of Hawaii in what will become a recurring role on the show, and
William Sadler ("The Pacific," CBS' "Jesse Stone" movies) plays McGarrett's (
Alex O'Loughlin) father. It's part of the drive by Lenkov, Kurtzman and fellow exec producer
Roberto Orci to make the show "event television."

"That means everything from the way the show looks to the way we cast this thing," Lenkov says. "We're trying to go for actors that don't necessarily do television but are gravitating to this because they like the project -- they've seen promos, they've read scripts, they just sort of know the buzz. And we're getting really amazing names brought to us."

Kurtzman wouldn't give up any other names, but he promises that "there will be more."